Bittersweet
by lemoncube
Summary: Valentine's Day, or should I say night, was not supposed to be like this. LXOC. One-shot. Etc, etc.


**I do not own Death Note.**

**So…Valentine's Day was yesterday, and today is just another normal day. This was supposed to be upped yesterday, but I slept while finishing it. When I came to my senses, I decided it's time to sleep.**

**Anyways, hope you enjoy reading kids :D**

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_Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Tick tock._

The wall clock ticked endlessly, and the sound was enough to drive her crazy. It was Valentine's Day and it was supposed to be spent with someone special, that's what Serafina thought. But not for her – she had tons of work to finish and it was fast approaching 9 o'clock. She turned away from the computer screen, swiveling her chair approximately one-eighty degrees. She looked at the whole faculty room in one quick sweep of her eyes – it was empty. She remembered saying goodbye to a few of her colleagues a while ago, but she didn't notice that they'd all gone home, gone to dates with their special someones, leaving her alone in the freezing room.

She sighed exasperatedly, and turned back to her computer screen. A few minutes typing into her A5 class record, the main door creaked. She immediately turned in her seat, glad to know that there was someone she could probably talk to. To her disappointment, the person who entered wasn't someone she often talked to. Hell, she hasn't even heard him speak. "You startled me, Mr. Lawliet."

"I'm sorry. You're still working, Ms. Serafina?"

"That's right." She didn't want to talk to the guy – out of the few weeks she'd spent working here, he still creeped her out more than she thought she'd be. What with his disheveled hair, dark bags under his eyes, skinny built, pale skin, and hunched back he looked like he needed a break from teaching at the university, probably a whole year of it.

Without continuing the conversation any further, Lawliet dragged himself towards his desk. Serafina followed him with her eyes, and she almost groaned when she saw the mess on his desk – countless stacks of paper lay on it, and his laptop was almost buried in the mountain of paper.

Perched on his swivel chair with knees to his chest, Lawliet chewed on his thumb as he pressed the 'on' button on his laptop. Serafina averted her eyes away from him – now was definitely not the time to get curious about his weird way of sitting, and ultimately, him. She faced the laptop screen again and continued her work, her eyelids ready for closing anytime soon.

"You don't have a date?"

Serafina perfectly heard him, but she didn't want to be disturbed any further from her work so she uttered a 'none' with a tone that was supposed to let the other party know how uninterested she was with sustaining the conversation.

"Quite surprising, I should say." Lawliet mused, tearing a sugar packet and pouring the contents into his vendo machine coffee.

"Why?" Serafina's eyebrows were raised in wonder, but she didn't face him. The comment was not something unusual, but it intrigued her, especially since the antisocial professor in the Physics department was the one who said it.

He tore another sugar packet and this time, emptied its contents into his mouth. To his disappointment, the sugar melted a few seconds after contact with his oral cavity. "You reek of sex appeal."

"Pardon?" Serafina turned to face him, the slight scowl in her face signaling just how uncomfortable she was with the comment.

"I repeat – you reek of sex appeal." Lawliet had also turned in his seat and now they were staring at each other, separated by a few feet of space. He held a paper cup in one hand, his index and pinky fingers the only ones doing the work, and chewed the thumb on his other, like a freaking toddler. Serafina thought that maybe it was an inborn skill – being able to hold most of his things using only two of his fingers; then again, it maybe brought about by his eccentricity.

She was blushing furiously, but tried to keep her calm. "Was that supposed to be a compliment, _Mr. Lawliet_?" She stressed his name on purpose, just so she could release some of the irritation building up inside her.

He turned in his seat and retrieved a candy-sprinkled donut from his desk before answering her question. "Yeah, something like that." He helped himself to the sweet treat, all the while maintaining eye contact with Serafina.

"Well…I guess I should say thank you." The truth was, Serafina wanted to slam Lawliet's head on the wall so he could maybe reflect about what he had just said. _Maybe there's no space for human sensitivity in that super brain of his, _she thought.

"No problem, Ms. Serafina."

Very much relieved that the issue had been resolved peacefully, Serafina turned back to her laptop again. She scanned the worksheet, and discovered that she was almost done. In jubilation, a big smile stretched her mouth. "Finally!" she exclaimed, her voice overly-cheerful like a kid's.

"You're leaving, Ms. Serafina?"

"Almost."

"I see."

Typing away on her laptop, Serafina blinked her eyes hard several times, the smell of donuts and coffee filling her nose. She looked through her shoulders, and discovered Lawliet munching on another very delectable-looking donut. Suddenly, she became aware of the fact that she hadn't had dinner yet – and the fact that he had bought something to eat. _When did he even buy those donuts?_

Trying her best not to think of her empty stomach, she instead thought of the sumptuous dinner, relaxing shower and good night sleep she'll have once she arrived home. But the aroma of donuts filled the whole place, and it was making her even hungrier.

"Do you want some donuts?"

Serafina turned in her seat to stare at him, but she didn't answer, so Lawliet took that she didn't want any. Still, he hasn't seen her leave her post anytime earlier, so he deducted she must be starving already. He reached for the box of donuts on his desk and straddled his swivel chair, then slid across the room to where Serafina's desk was.

"It's fine. I've already eaten." Serafina stated without looking at Lawliet, who she saw through her peripheral view, seated in his chair in a normal sitting position. She intended to sound nice, but her voice came out as an impatient demand to just leave her be.

"I know you're hungry. Come on, eat."

Was he ordering her? No, she didn't want being bossed around like that, especially not by someone as unsociable as him. "It's fine, really. Besides, I'll be leaving any minute now."

"Not even a bite?" He opened the box, picked one chocolate-and-nut-covered donut and offered it to Serafina. She turned it down as nicely as she could, but Lawliet didn't seem like he'd stop anytime soon, so she ended up accepting it.

"Thank you."

"Not a problem."

She took a first, small, bite from the donut, and the sweetness summoned a moan of satisfaction from her. She had denied herself sweet and fattening food like this, but being a sweet-tooth, it was very hard to do. She'd significantly reduced the amount of sugar in her food intake, but a day never passed without her consuming something sweet – candies, to be more exact.

Before eating any further, Serafina typed the last digits missing in her worksheet and saved the file afterwards. At long last, she was finished with her work and she could finally go home. She glanced at the clock – it was almost 9:45. Quite an overtime she'd had.

"Aren't you going to finish your treat, Ms. Serafina?" Lawliet asked, staring at the donut in her hands. She almost jumped in surprise, although she was fully aware that he hadn't changed his position ever since he took his place there.

"Of course I am."

"Of course you will."

Halfway done with the food, she glanced at Lawliet, his eyes-glued-on-you state making her very uncomfortable. She caught him with a little smirk on his face, and she almost smirked herself, but managed to put first a what-do-you-want? look on her face. "Go ahead. I'm not watching you anymore." He had become pokerfaced again.

Serafina finished her donut – she didn't think Lawliet would take away his gaze on her anytime soon. Certainly not with that weird amused look on his face. She closed her laptop and stared at her desk for a few seconds, before Lawliet's voice disturbed her reverie.

Lawliet smirked once more, as if satisfied to have her finish the food, before he slid to his desk and back again, bringing back a paper cup with him.

"Care to have coffee?" he asked, offering the drink to Serafina, who immediately accepted it.

"Thank you." She took a sip from the cup, and the sweetness of the coffee surprised her more than its scalding effect on her mouth. "This is too sweet!" she exclaimed, placing the cup on top of her desk.

"I put five packets of sugar in my coffee." Lawliet looked around for a few moments, his onyx eyes looking incredibly sharp. In a hushed voice, he asked "Can I take you home?"

She blinked once, twice, thrice, then faced him with an incredulous expression on her face. "What did you just say?"

"I asked if I can take you home." Lawliet replied without a bit of expression in his face.

"We're talking about my home, right?"

"Of course we are. I'm sorry about that – my question did sound wrong, now that I think about it. Must be because of the way I am seated right now."

Serafina had started fixing her things and her desk, but she paused and looked at him, curious about what he just mentioned. "What's wrong with it? It looks normal to me."

"That's the point. My reasoning ability drops by forty percent when I sit in a normal way."

"'Kay." Now Serafina really wanted to go home – she had enough of Lawliet and his oddities. She hauled her bag from her desk and put her arms through either strap, feeling the heavy weight of the backpack. Then, she felt his hand tugging on her arm. She looked down on him, and saw incredibly manipulative puppy eyes replace the lifeless orbs.

"Look, Mr. Lawliet, I'm really grateful for everything, but I'm afraid I have to go."

"Where's my goodbye kiss?"

The blood drained away and filled Serafina's face at the same time. Lawliet had just caused her temper to reach its limit, something which rarely happened. She shook his hand away from her arm, then backed away a few steps from him so she could recite a few words of advice to him.

"Mr. Lawliet," She sighed heavily. "I'm letting this one moment pass in peace, since I don't want to cause any kind of commotion here right now. In fact, I'd even be generous enough to give you your 'goodbye kiss' if you promise to stay away from me after this."

"Fine by me." His reply was instant, as if he was programmed to do so.

Serafina couldn't say anything anymore – she'd regretted what she said the moment the words came out of her mouth. She looked at Lawliet and the stupidly cool expression on his face, and she wished she could disappear into nothingness right then and there.

"Come sit here." Lawliet patted on the empty swivel chair beside him with a minute smirk on his lips. Serafina hesitantly made her way towards her chair, thinking about how her Valentine's Day had been perfectly ruined.

She sat on her chair, which Lawliet had arranged so that the one who occupied it would be directly, face-to-face, in front of him.

Lawliet stared into her eyes, as if he was reading her mind. Then, an awkward silence followed.

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"Let's end this."

"Close your eyes, then."

Lawliet shut his eyes, not even considering asking why she told him to. Serafina smiled as he did so, almost admiring him for his quick compliance. Almost. Ever-so-slowly, she drew her face closer to his, until their faces, lips, were a mere breath away.

"Can you feel me?" she inquired with a breathy voice.

"I do. You're lips are almost touching mine." he deadpanned.

"So you can actually say things like that." She was teasing him.

"Of course. You know, I've liked you ever since I first saw you." He was telling the truth.

"Yeah? Fool me." She laughed softly.

"What's taking the kiss so long?" He made a brief, groaning sort of sound.

"I want our goodbye kiss to be memorable." For a nanosecond, she actually considered kissing him.

"Is that so?" For a heartbeat, he actually considered crushing his lips against hers already, since he couldn't wait any longer.

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Lawliet felt the unmistakable, although feather-light, brush of Serafina's lips on his. Then, before he could open his eyes, he felt the same soft pair of lips on his forehead. When he had fully opened his eyes, she was gone.

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**A rather long one-shot it is, isn't it?**

**How about some rates and reviews?**

**I'll love you forever if you'll be so kind as to give me some words of love xD**


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